


The Playlist

by AllThoseOtherWorlds



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Irish drinking songs, Steve listens to Irish folk music, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-26
Updated: 2015-05-26
Packaged: 2018-04-01 09:30:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4014586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllThoseOtherWorlds/pseuds/AllThoseOtherWorlds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the team (on Pepper's suggestion) decides to create music playlists in the interests of team-building, Steve is the last to share. When he finally does, his music tastes prove ... interesting.</p><p>Now with an actual playlist!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Playlist

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or franchise. I do not make money from this.
> 
> If anything I've said here is problematic, please let me know. This was based on my own experiences, since I'm Maritime Canadian and grew up listening to this type of music (despite never drinking and never planning to). The contrast between the music and my personality amuses me, and reminded me of Steve. I then remembered that Steve's family is Irish (as far as I know) and thus this fic was born. I have no idea how realistic this idea actually is.
> 
> Update: I made an 8Tracks playlist based on this fic, which you can find here: http://8tracks.com/allthoseotherworlds/steve-s-playlist  
> Kudos, comments, and concrit are all appreciated!

“Hey, whose music is on today?” Clint wandered into the main area of the shared floor in the new Avengers Tower.

“I think this playlist is Bruce’s,” Natasha said from the couch between bursts of sound from whatever game she was playing with Steve. “I mean, do you know anyone else who’d put nature sounds on it?”

“Point,” Clint allowed. “I want mine on next, though.”

The music had been Pepper’s idea. After everyone moved into the tower (in some cases because they didn’t have anywhere else to go, and in some cases because they didn’t have anything better to do) it was a little awkward. They’d fought together, sure, but they weren’t actually used to _living_ together. It was challenging for them to find ways to interact that didn’t involve arguments, and that left a lot of dense, painful silences.

After the first week and a half, Pepper had gathered them all together and announced that they were to provide music playlists to at least fill the awkward silences in the tower, because even if they decided to be immature and standoffish, she didn’t want to have to not-listen to it.

She wasn’t _angry_ , per se, but there was definitely an element of threat in her voice, and nobody wanted to push that any farther than was absolutely necessary, so they’d complied. Much to their surprise, it actually seemed to help - music gave them all something fairly neutral to discuss and joke about, and they soon found themselves more at ease around each other.

The movie nights a miraculously-recovered Coulson had instituted may have helped too. Coulson wasn’t living at the tower - there was far too much going on at Shield for that - but he did try his best to make sure the Avengers all got along. Fury hadn’t wanted to let them know Coulson was alive, but they’d figured it out anyway thanks to a combination of Tony’s Shield-hacking habit and Coulson’s general sneakiness. Fury hadn’t been pleased, but since the team hadn’t fallen apart in light of Coulson’s aliveness, he hadn’t done much about it.

Clint squinted at the ceiling, glaring at the source of the burbling water-noises that were currently pouring out of Tony’s state-of-the-art speaker system.

Bruce chose that moment to wander into the room, heading to the open-plan floor’s kitchen to make a mug of tea. Before he got there, though, he caught Clint glaring up at the ceiling and looking perturbed.

“Don’t like nature music?” he asked, smiling.

“I wouldn’t say I _don_ _’t_ like it,” Clint said. “I’m just not sure it’s _music_.”

“It’s got musical chimes in it,” Natasha pointed out. “That makes it music.”

“See?” Bruce said, resuming his course to the kitchen. “It’s music. Right, Jarvis?”

“Yes, Doctor Banner. I do believe this genre of music is commonly termed ‘New-Age Instrumental’”

“Hmm,” Clint said. “What do you think, Steve?” he appealed to the one person in the room who hadn’t yet voiced an opinion.

“I don’t know,” Steve said. “It’s not a style of music I’ve heard before, but that doesn’t mean it’s not music.”

“Diplomatic as always, Captain,” Tony said, sauntering into the room. “That why you haven’t filled out a playlist yet? I promise we won’t get pissed at your music choices, even if they’re as terrible as Clint’s.”

“Hey!”

“Clint,” Tony shot him a look, “Your playlist included not one, not two, but _five_ parodies of _the same song_.”

“Um,” he said, trying to think of a suitable defense to Tony’s (unfortunately true) accusation. “It’s a good melody?”

“Good or not, it’s one I’d rather not hear for a long time,” Natasha told him. “Switch it up a bit. And you-” she pointed a finger at Steve- “Need to put together a playlist. We know you know how. That new-to-technology schtick stopped working when you started making social justice rants on your Facebook page.”

“Why haven’t you uploaded a playlist yet?” Bruce asked curiously.

Steve opened his mouth.

“As much as I regret saying it, messing with Tony isn’t a good enough excuse,” Clint told him.

Steve closed his mouth.

Steve and Tony were actually developing a strong friendship, but there was definitely an element of antagonism and pranking there too (although Clint had to admit that he may help a little bit on that end). Steve would “Forget” to put up a playlist, and that would drag Tony out of his lab so he could bug Steve, which got him interacting with the rest of the group. Clint thought that it was actually a pretty well-thought out scheme. Of course, it was hidden under a mask of playful irritation, but the end-result was pretty great.

———

It didn’t come up again until a week later, when Steve finally snapped. It was a pretty memorable occasion, really - they were all sitting in the room, doing their own stuff. Natasha was reading, Steve was drawing, Tony and Bruce were both poking at tablets and Clint was explaining card games to Thor. Even Pepper was in the room, doing paperwork of some kind on the tablet and occasionally asking Tony for input.

They’d been working in relative peace for about an hour when Natasha’s most recent creepy horror-movie song (as Clint had dubbed it) ended and Tony smirked.

Steve winced. Tony smirking was almost never a sign of a peaceful afternoon, and Steve’s playlist was supposed to come on after Natasha’s finished. Of course, he’d never really gotten around to making a playlist. It was more fun to watch Tony fuss over it, and he really wasn’t sure they’d like his taste in music anyway.

Within the hour he was starting to regret not having made a playlist sooner.

“Steve?” Natasha asked, smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

He threw his hands up in denial. “It wasn’t me!”

“Oh, come on,” Tony said. “It was what you’d have picked anyway, right? All patriotic and crap.”

“Tony,” Steve said, giving him a Look. “I hated _The Star Spangled Man_ when I had to perform to it, and I hate it now.”

“Aye, I agree with the Captain,” Thor said. “The song may not be terrible, but the frequency with which it has played has inured me to its charms. So too for the other one, the … theme song?”

“It’s called a national anthem, Thor,” Pepper said. “And Steve, you sort of brought this one on yourself.” She gave him a stern look, but he could see the smile hiding behind it. She found the team’s antics just as amusing as they themselves did.

“I know,” he groaned. “I’ll submit a playlist by tomorrow, okay? Just stop this one for now.”

“Nope,” Tony grinned. “Need some way to remind you to do it this time.”

“Please,” Bruce said. “For the rest of us, please delete this one. There’s only so much patriotism I can take.”

“Agreed,” Clint and Natasha said in unison. Tony suspected they had some kind of special signal to do that - it happened too frequently and was too creepy for it to be otherwise.

Tony sighed and pouted, but agreed. “Fine. Jarvis?”

“Thank you, Sir,” Jarvis said, and switched to the medley of pop, classic rock, and instrumental that was Pepper’s playlist.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

———

True to his word, Steve submitted a playlist by the next morning. Of course, it didn’t come on right away because it was slotted to play after Bruce’s, apparently (There was a schedule which varied from day to day. Steve wasn't sure why randomizing them wouldn't work, but Tony had insisted on making one. Steve thought he just liked organizing and manipulating the data.)

That meant, obviously, that Steve’s playlist didn’t come on until both Fury and Coulson were in the main area talking with the Avengers about battle strategies. They had originally had these sorts of meetings on the Helicarrier, but they moved to the Tower because post-mission debriefings went better if people had showered and changed first.

This wasn’t a post-mission debriefing, but they were meeting at the Tower anyway. It was probably Tony’s influence somehow, but nobody was going to complain except possibly Fury. For all the time they’d spent on the Helicarrier, even Clint and Natasha were now comfortable in the Tower, and Bruce had actively avoided the Helicarrier after his first time onboard.

All of which was to say that they were gathered in the main area of the Tower having a serious discussion when Steve’s playlist came on. It was a sudden shift - one moment Bruce’s nature music was playing softly in the background, and the next one of Steve’s songs started to play at random.

Tony stopped in the middle of a lengthy explanation of a new quiver he’d made for Clint. The silence was thick and stunned for a few moments, broken when Fury cleared his throat pointedly.

“Uh, Jarvis?” Tony asked. “What is this?”

“Captain Rogers’ playlist, Sir,” Jarvis responded, amusement evident in his tone if you knew how to listen for it. Steve had quickly come to realize that Jarvis did in fact have a sense of humour, and that he exercised it at the least opportune times.

“ _Captain Rogers?_ _”_ Tony repeated incredulously. “Uh, Steve?”

“Yes?” Steve asked, putting on his most innocent face.

“What the hell is this?”

“What he’s trying to ask,” Clint put in helpfully, “is why you have drinking songs on your playlist.”

“I thought you couldn’t get drunk?” Coulson added, surprise and borderline-hysterical laughter warring just under his voice.

Fury said nothing, and Steve couldn’t tell if he was amused or trying not to explode. Or possibly both, since Fury was complicated like that.

“It’s not a drinking song,” he said in his own defense. “It’s … nostalgia.”

“Jarvis, what’s this song about?” Tony asked.

“ _Finnegan_ _’s Wake,_ Sir, is an Irish ballad from the 1850’s about a labourer who, due to drink, falls and breaks his skull and is presumed dead. The people attending his wake become rowdy and accidentally spill whiskey on the corpse, which brings him back to life. This version of the song was recorded by the Irish Rovers in-”

“Okay, that’s enough, J,” Tony said, turning to Steve with one eyebrow raised and a smirk raising the corner of his mouth.

“Okay, _yes_ , it could be considered a drinking song,” Steve acknowledged. “Does nobody remember my parents were Irish? I grew up listening to this sort of stuff! Well, not this particular song necessarily, but it reminds me of the music I listened to as a child. It’s familiar. And besides,” he continued, “It’s not like this is the only song I have on here. It’s just an _interesting_ coincidence that it came on first, and while we were having this discussion.” He looked meaningfully at one of the cameras Jarvis used to observe the inhabitants of the Tower.

“So what you’re telling me is that Captain America listens to Irish folk music about drinking and wakes.” Fury said. It wasn’t a question.

“Yes, Sir,” Steve said. It wasn’t an apology.

“Well, then,” Fury smiled. “Glad I’m not the poor soul in charge of managing your media exposure.”

Tony’s smirk had turned into a full-out grin. “Steve, _please_ tell me you have more of this on here. This is making my day. I think this makes your playlist the best – other than mine, obviously.”

“Sounds kind of like some of the stuff I’d hear at the circus, actually,” Clint mused.

“Do you know the words to these?”

Steve groaned, then nodded at Natasha. “Yes. I do. No, I’m not singing them for you.”

She looked thoughtful.

“Not even if you threaten me,” he added.

“I’ll sing them!” Tony offered.

Fury watched the team bicker and converse, and forced his face to remain impassive. Inside, he was smiling - the team was doing well, coming together. It was everything the Initiative was supposed to be.

Next to him, Coulson smiled - both inward and outwardly - and resolved to look up and listen to the song on his own later.


End file.
